The Adelson Factor

Tomorrow, if the polls are correct, Mitt Romney will have no trouble securing his second win in a row, this one in the caucuses that Nevada’s Republicans are set to hold. But it’s a Newt Gingrich supporter who’ll be setting the pace for the whole day.

Most polls in Nevada will close at 3 P.M. local time tomorrow; others will shut their doors at 5 P.M. But there’s one very special caucus, involving one very special man: the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. As an observant Jew, Adelson is forbidden from voting on the Sabbath, which ends at sundown, so he will instead go to a polling place that opens at 7 P.M. This caucus is supposedly being held for any observant Jew, but no one believes that’s actually the case. There aren’t many of those in Nevada, for one thing; for another, the county Republican Party wasn’t very subtle: the caucus is being held at the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Educational Campus.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of making arrangements to insure that everyone who wants to participate can do so, regardless of religious obligation. There are some people who make a credible case that all elections should be held on Saturdays, rather than Tuesdays, in order to encourage more people to vote, and, if that change is ever made, accommodations and hours will undoubtedly be part of the discussion.

Still, it’s hard to shake the idea that this is all about Adelson—that we wouldn’t be at this point at all were it not for him and his money. Without Adelson funding a pro-Gingrich Super PAC and its attacks on Mitt Romney, Newt might well have found it impossible to take his campaign as far as Nevada.

Alex Koppelman was a politics editor for newyorker.com from from 2011 to 2013.